My smart phone is making me stupid!

Hi Jennifer and Friends! And welcome Jade from Boston! Glad to have you on the friends blog and I look forward to reading about things that interest you.

I'm fed up with cell phones. Seriously people! Sick and tired of this addictive little gadget is just the beginning of how I feel but I can't put it down, and neither can anyone else. How this feeling came about was a revelation in the most unusual way. Here's what happened.

I have a group of girlfriends that I run with every Saturday and when we're done we go to a little coffee joint and sit and chat for about an hour. During our conversation on Saturday everyone's cellphone rang and beeped and vibrated so much I kind of lost it.

As I was jokingly critical of all my friends and their constant text interruptions, you know the kind; the kind when people stop what they're saying to you and look at their cell phone to see who the far more important message was from, we were looking at some pictures recently taken and all of them of me showed me looking down at my so-called smart phone. There were more than a couple pictures of me standing with a group of people staring down at my cell phone and it looked like I was sending a text message or returning an email. I remember the event and I remember that pictures were taken, but for the life of me I cannot remember what was so important that made me look like an idiot in all these pictures. I was embarressed and the laughter and teasing I was hearing was so deserved and it made me seriously rethink how connected I need to be.

I read the blog about the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and I love technology and how it can improve your life but what they don't mention is how addictive all of this can be. For tech companies I'm sure they want you to be addicted but from now on, I'm going to learn to turn things off or leave the phone in the car and carry on a conversation and be respectful of an other person's time. The smart phone was making me stupid, or at least look stupid! From now on I'm going to just walk away when a person I'm talking to stops the conversation and looks at their phone. How rude!

At least I'm aware that I'm addicted. Isn't that the first step of a 12 step program; acknowledge that you have a problem.

Lynn
Los Angeles, CA